Page 60 of Chaos & Carnage

I watched the grey-haired man approach the men on the floor, angry Cade’s arms flailing around like a wild animal. The grey-haired man stepped in behind the men, trying to restrain Cade, letting the others step out to the side, then sinking down, wrapping his arms around the angry one’s neck. Cade’s hands clawed at the bright tattoos that covered every inch of the older man’s arms, but eventually I watched as his fingers went limp, his arms dropping to his sides and he was dragged off other Cade like a rag doll.

Whatever the grey-haired man had done to him was momentary, because in an instant he was awake again, his eyes springing open, gasping a big lungful of air.

“Don’t worry, honey,” the short woman beside me shouted over the music, guiding me into the round booth gently. “The boys will be ok. They’re just having words.”

“Words?” I shook my head, my eyes still fixed on the carnage that was slowly subsiding in the middle of the floor.

The Cades were surrounded by men in leather, the older one beckoning with his head for them to follow. Follow they did, flanked by some of the scariest looking men I had ever set my eyes on.

“Can I get you a drink?” The blonde lady asked, looking at me with concern.

“Yes. Yes, please. Anything. No, something strong.”

“I’ll sort you out. Sit.” She pointed to another blonde woman watching me from the back of the booth. “This is Heidi. She’s pretty new round here, too.”

The older woman smiled, an attempt to be friendly, unconvincing all the same.

She shuffled closer. “You get used to it.”

“What?”

“This madness. Someone always punches someone else. They’ll be friends again in a minute. You just watch.”

But I didn’t know what I was watching. Or what I was still doing here.

“So, which one of the twins are you with? I can never tell them apart.”

I just stared at the woman, my mouth hanging open, my brain somersaulting, unable to put my thoughts in any sort of order, never mind into words. A drink slid across the table in front of me, and I turned in the direction it had come from, my mouth still gaping.

“You ok?” the smaller blonde asked.

“I…I…There’s two of them….”

The woman smiled sympathetically. “Identical twins. Cade and Caleb. Or Chaos and Carnage, as we like to call them.”

“I didn’t know. He said he had a brother. An older brother.”

“Which ‘he’, sweetheart?” the little blonde asked.

She was older than me, older than the woman sat on my other side.

“I…err… Cade.”

“And Cade didn’t tell you he was a twin, huh?”

I shook my head, heat prickling at the back of my eyes.

“I need to go. I need to call a taxi.”

“I’ll get my hubby to ring one. Just wait here a moment.”

She stood up, just over five feet of her. But then, she wobbled, pushing her palm into the table and squeezing her eyes shut.

“You ok?” I asked, realising that out of the two of us still sitting, I was the only one that had noticed.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“That’s Suzy.” A voice beside me joined the melee of rock songs and the rumble of voices. “She’s a good little egg. Well, more like mother hen to half these boys, and is as much part of the club as her man, Magnet. There’s a lot to take in…” Heidi paused, the gap in conversation allowing me the opportunity to introduce myself.